Photograph by: Mark van Manen
, PNG

The Supreme Court of Canada has denied Carol Berner’s request to appeal her conviction for impaired driving that caused the death of four-year-old Alexa Middelaer in Ladner five years ago.

As is its custom, the Supreme Court gave no reason for its decision Wednesday morning, and the motion to appeal was dismissed without costs.

Berner was convicted in 2010 for the May 17, 2008 crash that killed Alexa as she was feeding a horse in the 4300-block of 64th Street. Middelaer’s aunt was also hit and suffered critical injuries in the crash.

In 2011, Berner was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and given a five-year driving ban. She asked the B.C. Court of Appeal to overturn the conviction but that request was also dismissed.

In that appeal, Berner’ser lawyer David Tarnow had argued that the police failed to give Berner a charter warning about her rights before asking her to take a roadside sobriety test, which she failed, at the scene of the accident.

Tarnow contends that Berner was placed in the back of a locked police car by the first Delta police officer to arrive on the scene and, while she was in the car, was asked if she’d been drinking.

Berner said she admitted she’d had two glasses of wine some time previous but was showing no signs of impairment. It was only after she had failed the roadside test that she was given the standard warning, said Berner.

However, the Crown argued the accident happened because Berner — who had consumed between a third to half a bottle of wine — was driving in excess of 90 kilometres an hour in a 50 km/h zone and lost control as she went over speed bumps, causing her to over-steer and fishtail before smashing into the aunt’s parked car then hitting both victims.

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